Fetishism

Fetishism, also known as African paganism, is the colloquial term for the many folk religions of Sub-Saharan Africa. Sorcery was involved in the everyday lives of West African people, and some objects were believed to have had supernatural powers, including animals. Fetishism was the prevailing belief in most Sub-Saharan African countries until the introduction of Christianity and Islam to the lands south of the Sahara Desert, and folk religion is still present in some societies, sometimes as a syncretistic belief with other religions.